Ellar Coltrane Quotes

Children live in occupied territory. The brave and the foolhardy openly rebel against authority, whether harsh or benign. But most tread warily, outwardly accommodating themselves to alien mores and edicts while living in secret their iconoclastic and subversive lives.

I was growing up in a society that exerted a lot of control on people, and from both my personality and the social condition, I found gunpowder gradually as a very suitable medium for exploration.

From childhood, we're trained to be a certain way, to behave a certain way - so that the power base can control us, really. And punk and drag are completely outside of that.

A lot of people believe that if everybody just did what they were told - obeyed - everything would be fine. But that's not what life is all about. That's not real. It's never going to happen.

For slaves to fashion, the rules are made to be broken.

I was seen in earlier years by family members and people of authority as somebody wasting his time. I had trouble with the restrictions of conformity. It made me edgy.

How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity.

I'm such a Goody Two-shoes, but I get a vicarious thrill at someone sticking it to the Man.

In the U.S., you have to be a deviant or die of boredom.

Unless you hit your television with a sledgehammer, you're not going to be able to be an individual.

There's no rules. Show me the rule book.

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head.

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.

Basically, I hate conformity. I hate people telling me what to do. It makes me want to smash things. So-called normal behaviour patterns make me so bored, I could throw up!

Disorder is the child of authority and compulsion. Liberty is the mother of order.

No one can go on being a rebel too long without becoming an autocrat.

A man who is free is like a mangy sheep in a herd. He will contaminate my entire kingdom and ruin my work.

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find that far more, and far more hideous, crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.

Conformity is painful. You know, it's too tight. Conformity leads to rebellion. So a desire for happiness is in direct conflict with a desire for freedom.

I'm done with rules that are there just to be rules.

If it was up to me, there wouldn't be no such thing as the establishment.

When you're a kid, you get all these rules and regulations coming down on your head. You've got a need to be recognized. But as time goes by, this stuff, if it remains, can kill you. The attitude alone can't sustain anyone forever.

I went to a Catholic high school, and I was super rebellious. I would dress weird or play jazz. I was definitely pushing against whatever was going on.

Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.